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I really didn’t know the first thing about pagan gods to know who Set was or why Khalid drew in a breath when Mazen announced that was who he was. Mazen didn’t set off any alarms with my new magic. He felt complicated, like Liam, but not evil.

I wasn’t picking up much from this group, but I also didn’t know how my magic worked. I also didn’t know if Lola’s magic scrambled things up when she was near someone. I didn’t know what the fuck a chakra was other than my father would have said it was demonic and hit me for bringing it into his house.

“Well, this is a fucked-up mix of reincarnations and it’s probably apocalyptic-level if we’ve got death gods, war gods, fucking Liam, and Thor. The traps are set, so we need to get out of here,” Zephyr said.

“You know who I am?” Liam asked.

“Pretty sure, but we aren’t allowed to tell you. No one is. You have to figure it out.”

“That’s shite. I’m growing something out of my forehead.”

“It can’t be worse than this migraine,” Alexios said.

Zephyr opened a portal.

“I’m picking up supernatural students because I know them, but the rest of you need to be vetted first because at least one of you is a nasty. I’m not all that sure one of you with us now isn’t.”

Yeah, that was the problem. We didn’t, either. I didn’t know what was happening in other quadrants, but people got hurt in the two we were in. Mazen and his team and Ivar and his were in both quadrants when it went down. Lola named Ivar, Ari, and Alexios as her attackers, but Set was someone Khalid really didn’t like. Mazen also lost a team member, and he actually seemed really worried about her.

I liked walking. It was an easy way to get my blood sugar down to enjoy a treat and I got to enjoy the outdoors. That said, portals were pretty handy. Ours opened up straight to the trap where the crystals were. A bunch of people came out when they realized Zephyr and the rest of the Unseelie had left their post.

“What the hell, Zephyr? I dumped you. This is getting ridiculous.”

“I didn’t come here to see you, Nida. And stop lying. I broke up with you because I couldn’t even talk to anyone without you going crazy and trying to ruin their life. And you are the one stalking me. Stop making everything about you. That’s another reason we were never going to work. The rules have changed. There’ve been so many reincarnations in the past two classes because there’s something bad out here, it’s awake, and it’s made a friend. Two people are missing without a trace and one was beaten.”

“Fuck. The people you are with are pretty complicated,” another woman said.

“What do you see, Ailey? This crystal was protected by Djinn, succubae, and incubi. The Succubae don’t just feed off lust. They can see connections.”

“It’s weird. The teams are all what I would expect except that one. Something is off with that team, but I can’t figure out what.”

She wasn’t pointing at mine and I wasn’t expecting her to. I meshed with all of these guys and wished some of them got along better. I didn’t think she would point to Ivar, Ari, and Alexios either. I still didn’t know if they’d hurt Lola or she just thought they did, but I could just feel they were supposed to be together.

Ailey was pointing at Mazen, Radames, and Lola. I wasn’t shocked. I couldn’t figure Lola out, but I would imagine a succubus couldn’t get a read on her, either.

“That would be me,” Lola said. “I started out on their team, but they hurt me. That vampire had to give me his blood to heal me because I was really bad off, and then Mazen and Radames took me so I wouldn’t be influenced by his blood. We didn’t start out together.”

“That’s a lie,” Ailey said.

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, but I read all of you and the three you are pointing at don’t have a violent bone in their body.”

“The sexy blond one is Thor,” Zephyr said.

“That’s the problem!” Nida yelled. “You think everyone is sexy.”

“Anyway,” Ailey said. “Thor has battle lust where he gets lost in it if someone is a threat to the people he’s protecting, but he’s basically a protector of humans and supernaturals, so he wouldn’t lay a finger on you unless he thought you were a threat. He’s very protective of the bear and to an extent the other member of his team. He would have extended that to you if you joined them unless you gave him a reason not to.”

An absolutely beautiful dark-skinned man stepped forward. I didn’t know if he was a Djinn or an incubus until he opened his mouth.

“The three of them would be totally up for a foursome, but they wouldn’t throw you around a bit and paddle your bottom, even if you asked, because they are acutely aware of how big they are and don’t want to hurt people.”

It was adorable. Ivar cleared his throat like he was embarrassed and Ari flushed red. Alexios might have had some kind of reaction if he didn’t have a migraine.

Lola just raised her chin.

“I know what happened to me. It seems like you’re trying to discredit me because you all want to fuck them.”

A bunch of them fell out laughing and I was pretty sure it was the succubae and incubi.

“Oh, honey, I don’t have to lie about a damned thing to get anyone to fuck me. I’m an incubus.”

“They beat the shit out of me. Some of my ribs were broken, I could tell. I barely got away. The only reason I’m still here is that I met another team with a vampire on it.”

“Someone did a number on her,” Liam said. “Someone who knew what they were doing and enjoyed it. And before any of you go there, Lola couldn’t have done that to herself. You can fake getting beaten with the right tools, but we don’t have any of those out here and not to the extent she was hurt.”

“We’re not saying she wasn’t. We all have unique powers and we’re telling you what ours are showing us. We can get a read on everyone but Lola, so it’s throwing things off.”

So, we weren’t the only ones feeling that. No one else had brought it up so far. I honestly didn’t know if it was rude to. Lucian needed blood and he couldn’t help that. Lola might just have needed training before she could rein that in. It could be some kind of defense mechanism in her magic that kicked in when she got beaten.

If no one could sense her, it would be easier for her to hide if whoever hurt her wanted to come back and finish the job. And if Ivar and the guys weren’t the ones who hurt her, and she was just made to think they were, someone might eventually want to silence her when the mind control wore off, if it was going to wear off.

I had a feeling all of this, the people disappearing and Lola being beaten and allowed to escape was all part of some sick game someone was playing.